Bed and saddle regrinds at Myford

A word to the Wise

As many know this service performed at Myford is popular and adds years of accurate life to Myford Lathes that have become trusted friends to their owners. However there are limits. We did come across one bed we were unable to regrind and the measurements are interesting for those who are considering using the service themselves.

It involved an early Super 7 bed which was originally despatched, as a new lathe, from our works in late 1953. It was returned to us in 2007, after 50 odd years of continuous use. In came the bed with saddle and all associated parts. The owner earnestly requested a bed and saddle regrind but unfortunately we were unable to help.

A lathe bed manufactured in 1953 gave 50 years service, it is still in our works today.

The nominal thickness of the shears on a finished new bed is approximately 0.5” (12.70mm). When we regrind them we normally remove between 0.005” and 0.010”, the maximum that we can remove is 0.025” before complications occur in aligning the apron with the rack and leadscrew. In theory it’s possible to regrind a bed between 2 and 5 times. In fact our records show that this has been done for a number of customer owned lathes.

What caused the problem with this particular request was a dent in the bed approximately 0.075” (1.9050mm) deep and, of course, outside of the limits. All was not lost we were able to source a pre-owned bed which we reground and matched to the existing saddle. This lathe is still performing well today.

Many Bed and Saddle regrinds, and re-regrinds are carried out every year and nearly all fall within limits. The saddle also has its limits inasmuch as lubrication can become ineffective when the oil grooves become narrowed by heavy wear of the slide faces, something to be aware of if regrinding yourself.

Two points are clear, there are times when wear is beyond recovery - and one bad component doesn’t write off a lathe provided the work of repair is correctly carried out and inspected to reaffirm original standards have been restored.

We provide a full description of our Bed and Saddle regrind service together with a schedule of dates when the Beeston Works provides this service. Please visit http://www.myford-rebuilds.com/

Myford Technical Support